Latest ONSW News
Three rookies are among the six ONSW riders named in the national team to race against New Zealand at the Australian MTBO champs in Victoria at the end of this month.
Ori Gudes (Uringa, M40, pictured), Michael Ridley-Smith (Garingal, M40) and Rob Vincent (Newcastle, M60) will wear the green and gold for the first time in Maryborough from October 25-27.
Ori is a keen track cyclist as well as doing mountain bike orienteering and foot orienteering.
Michael - who was selected two years ago for Wingello but got injured just prior while motorbike riding - does foot o and adventure racing. He has the M40 NOL title alreasy sewn up ahead of the nationals.
Rob is a master foot o mapper, course setter and controller who has added MTBO to his substantial repertoire in recent years.
The Australian team is spearheaded by 2019 world champs rookie Tim Doman from Newcastle, who was picked for the international stage earlier this year after just half a dozen MTBO events!
The other two NSW riders chosen for Australia are Big Foot's Hamish Mackie (Big Foot) and Andrew Power (Newcastle) who will also be the team manager.
Congratulations on these selections and appointment.
And a reminder of other coming MTBO events:
* Newcastle's BOSS series starts on Sunday October 13 at Killingworth South. A great intro to MTBO.
* The ACT Champs are on the following weekend (Oct 18-20). Entries close on Monday October 14.
Sam Woolford from our Bush n Beach club is the latest NSW orienteer to be named in the Australian Schools Honour team following his sterling performances in Wagga this week.
The second of four brothers from Coffs Harbour, Sam was in the winning Junior Boys relay team on Thursday and enjoyed top-8 placings in the Sprint and Long races.
He was named along with Newcastle prodigy Alvin Craig, who won all three events and earned his fourth straight Australian selection, in the Junior Boys team at the Thursday evening presentation ceremony.
Iida Lehtonen (Garingal) and Nea Shingler (Big Foot) were named in the Junior Girls team for the second year in a row. Nea had two firsts and a second placing; Iida two firsts and a third.
Honour Team selections receive a certificate and an Australian O top. Well done to these four on this great achievement; it equals the most number of students we've had make the team.
Dominant performances by our junior relay teams sealed the Australian schools orienteering shield for NSW for the first time since 2002.
But the trophy came down to how well our senior teams could do against more highly-credentialled opponents on a very warm spring day at Pomingalarna Reserve in Wagga.
The title was tantalisingly close after Sam Woolford (BB), Oskar Mella (NC) and Alvin Craig (NC) - pictured below - smashed the Junior Boys race by 12 minutes. Each was fastest for the course on their leg.
Then our Junior Girls team of Iida Lehtonen (GO), Mikayla Enderby (NC) and Nea Shingler (BF) was the first Australian team over the line - behind the two NZ teams but seven minutes clear of Victoria thanks to a blistering last leg by Nea. Iida and Nea were also fastest on their legs.
Niamh Cassar (WHO) needed to make up two and a half minutes on South Australia in the Senior Girls to grab third place after a superb second leg by Tshinta Hopper (BN). Despite dropping time to the first radio control she caught up five minutes to power home and deliver the Shield to the Carbines!
The Senior Boys were always going to struggle with Ewan Shingler (BF) hobbling the first leg after sustaining an injury yesterday. His courageous effort meant NSW had points up their sleeve in case.
The final points tally from the schools champs is: NSW 62, SA 56, ACT 53, Victoria 50, Queensland 49, Tasmania 42, WA 19. NZ Karahiwi won the Southern Cross Junior Challenge.
A huge congratulations to all our students - for most of them this is the sixth day in a row of intense competition in very demanding terrain - and our management team of coach Rob Bennett, assistant coach Damien Enderby and manager Jenny Enderby.
Congratulations to Iida Lehtonen (Garingal) and Alvin Craig (Newcastle) who won the Australian Junior Schools Long titles in Wagga on Wednesday.
Alvin won by a massive four and a half minutes to make it two golds in as many days, while Iida finished 37 seconds ahead of team-mate Nea Shingler (Big Foot). They also beat all the Kiwis!
The map at Connorton features yet more granite and the Long courses were described by Victorian legend Warren Key as the "toughest I have ever seen at a schools champs in 30 years".
Selwyn Sweeney (WHO) was the best of the NSW senior boys in 22nd Australian and 31st overall - after Ewan Shingler (BF) withdrew injured midway through the 6.2km course.
Ellen Currie (GO) was our quickest in the Senior Girls - 11th Australian and 19th overall. ACT again swept the Senior Girls, and the Senior Boys placings were again shared around the states and NZ.
Our other schools team members performed as follows (counting only Australians):
Junior Boys: Oskar Mella (NC) 5th, Sam Woolford (Bush n Beach) 8th, Jamie Woolford (BB) 13th, Cooper Horley (GO) 25th.
Junior Girls: Mikayla Enderby (NC) 7th, Erika Enderby (NC) 11th, Julia Barbour (BF) 24th, Martine Valais (WHO) mispunch.
Senior Boys: Cameron Will (IKO) 25th, Oscar Woolford (BB) mp, Ewan Shingler (BF) mp.
Senior Girls: Niamh Cassar (WHO) 12th, Tshinta Hopper (Bennelong) 18th, Andra Leung (GO) 19th, Serena Doyle (Uringa) 20th.
Thursday is the Relays and the highlight of the schools champs.
